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"The Obama administration is lagging behind the pace set by its predecessor for listing endangered species, and some environmentalists are not happy. ...

Said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity: 'Only two listings shows they have not correctly shifted the agency's priorities to correct the foot-dragging of the Bush administration.'

So far, President Obama's Fish and Wildlife Service has offered protection to two U.S. species, both plants, out of nearly 250 on Endangered Species Act's "candidates" list. Candidate species have been deemed worthy of protection by federal biologists but are kept from formal listing because of other priorities for the department.

The service also finalized listings for three foreign bird species and a segment of the Atlantic salmon population and edited the listings of two plants and two species of salamander that were previously listed as single species."